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"The most frustrating thing is this team is like Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. The second quarter was terrible. I was a scared coach, thinking that these guys were just cashing in. And then they come out in the end of the third and fourth quarters, and it's as good as we've played. I know that this team has a lot of emotions and sensitivities that go with a season where you haven't won, and we're totally aware of that. Those things are hard to get through. We talk afterwards and the players know what is going on but we can't figure out a way to rope those emotions into a full game."

"Kyle (Boller) had a good week in practice, but he hadn't played. He got racked a couple of times early, but we knew he would be ready to go when called upon and that was the situation that we wanted to give him.

On Arizona's success blitzing:

"They have their linebackers at about a six yard depth and they've done that all year. It's a defense that we don't see except in this game, and we practiced and practiced and practiced and we seemed to have a little control in the first half. But we had a couple of switcharoos in the offensive line and that hurt us. Some guys didn't pick some things up and the protection, which was pretty basic, just broke down."

On Arizona's clock management in the fourth quarter:

"We kept looking up and trying to figure out how it would be, and they kept going. They had a couple of their players...that stayed in the game the whole way. They did give us an opportunity once we made a few and not run the clock, but they felt they had a comfortable lead. Obviously, they didn't want to just sit on it. Maybe John (Mackovic) was testing their players to see what they can do with that lead, to see if they can continue to build. And they didn't pull it off all, and that was his call.

"It gave us an opportunity. We had a couple of opportunities to score and you start adding it up and pretty soon, it's 14 (points) and we have the ball and are ready to march down and we have another shot. They kind of let us back in at the end and we took it."

"After a while, we got used to the blitzing. We started to pick it up, and that's when we started to make plays."

About the freshmen seeing playing time:

"It's good to see more freshmen playing. Lorenzo (Alexander), he's put in a lot of work starting. Jordon Hunter, he came in today and played a good game, made a few catches. (The freshmen) were put in because we worked hard to get where we are. The coaches are just playing the best men."

"Sometimes it takes us a while to bounce back. A big play (against us) will keep us down for a while. For some reason, we let that stuff get us down, hit us hard."

On losing the game:

"We always think that we're going to win. Every week it hurts (when we lose). We just need to move on."

Arizona head coach John Mackovic

General comments on the game

"We played a full game and actually I was really glad that we played 60 minutes and at halftime the score was a little bit lopsided and I was concerned whether our guys would continue to play and stay after it. We made a lot of substitutions in the late third quarter and early fourth quarter and Cal fought back, made a few big plays, and as it turns out we were down there fighting hard and tough at the end. And that's fine. I think you have to be able to do that. I really believe our defense played well...we didn't give them very much all day ...they hit a couple of passes at the very end that made it look a little different from what it was. They stepped up and really had a lot of pressure on both their quarterbacks all afternoon.

"Next week we take on Stanford, they're a top-ten team, and we know that they are really playing well. Yet it gives us an opportunity to even our record at five and five ... that would be significant for us. We had a three game stretch that we knew we had to win and this is game one. Now we turn our attention to number 2. It's our seniors last home game, so that will be a memorable game for them."

Is there a sense of relief from this win?

"We've been playing better and we've been getting better on a regular basis for the past month, and that's really the difference in our team. That's why we played as well as we did early and were able to take control of the game. Sometimes you're playing well and you don't win and if that happens you just have to accept that. But we played a couple of weeks where we didn't play very well, but we have played better and better and we know that we're getting better and today we put it all together."

On Jason Johnson and Bobby Wade:

"They were right on today. Jason really had a good setup for this week ... he understood what was going on. We were able to get Bobby Wade isolated a number of times one-on-one and he turned some short gains into some big plays but he also made some real good catches over them."

On Clarence Farmer:

"Clarence ran hard and we some good set-ups. Once we got him stretched out a little bit it really opened up his long touchdown run. We caught them off guard, they weren't ready. It was one of the deals where they were coming out of the huddle and they weren't quite set. We had the ball into the secondary before they knew what hit them."

Was the best performance by the past rush all year?

"Yes. It was a good performance in every regard. A couple of those passes that went over Michael Jolivette there, those are balls that could've just as easily been caught by either guy. I don't necessarily find him totally at fault with that at all."

Closing Comments:

"It's good to win. These guys have worked extremely hard and they never gave up. They kept working and we pushed them hard in practice ... we haven't backed off at all in practice. We've continued to work and because of that we're better and better. We knew as we came down the stretch, if you're going to be a championship team ... and we're not playing for a championship, we're playing for our own championship ... we have to be the best we could be and you have to play well in November. And they're prepared to play well in November."

Arizona player quotes

QB Jason Johnson

General comments:

"The bottom line is that our offensive line gave us some time. Bobby (Wade) and I have been trying to get on the same page all year and we did that today."

On the win:

"Obviously, it is a relief. But all week we thought this was the beginning of something. It's just a three game thing for us."

On the Cal defense:

"We knew Cal had a hard-hitting defense, that if we could hold onto the ball that we'd be okay. It was good to see the ball get in our guys' hands."

"You have give credit to the Cal defense. They fought hard and with pride the whole game."

WR Bobby Wade

General comments:

"We worked hard all week in practice and breaking down film. We knew Cal was going to pressure us. We had Cal running all game."

DT Anthony Thomas

General comments:

"We really wanted to pressure him (Reggie Robertson) right away. We knew what kind of quarterback he is and what he could do."

TE Justin Levasseur

General comments:

"Jason (Johnson) told me before the game, "Be ready, we're going to throw to you today.""